Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Water concessions are like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic-Brady

Wicklow Sinn Féin County Councillor John Brady has labelled the concessions on water charges announced by the Government as the rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic by political parties that have their fingers in their ears and are not listening to the citizens.

Cllr Brady said "The government clearly hasn’t got the message yet. They say they have listened with humility to the people opposed to water charges. However if they were listening they would know that the people are demanding the scrapping of water charges and not clarity or a package to sweeten the deal. The concessions on the charges are basically a dangled carrot and a con job designed to lure people into agreeing to pay a charge that will inevitably be increased to much higher levels in years to come."

"The changes are effectively the rearranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic by a government with its fingers stuck in their ears. The Government have been on the ropes for the last few weeks on the issue and since 1 November they have been on a PR offensive to try and quell the unprecedented levels of protests the government has been facing. It shows that people power is working. We must continue with the protest campaign as the Government clearly are sinking on this issue."

Cllr Brady continued “We have achieved a victory forcing the Government to do a political u turn, however we need them to go one step further and abolish the water charges altogether. These concessions are due to end after 2018 and I believe people will face much higher bills at that point."

“The Government have failed to listen to the will of the people, they need to remove their fingers from their ears and listen. These changes have not quelled the anger of the people on this issue, in fact it's done the complete opposite. People now know that people power works, we now need to stand united and harness that anger and focus all our efforts on ensuring we get the maximum possible turnout in protest against water charges on December 10th to deliver home the message once and for all that water charges must be scrapped" concluded Councillor Brady. Ends